The Adventures of Shrinkman

R. L. Stine's The Adventures of Shrinkman is a scary, funny story for 9 year olds about a boy who gets his wish to be like his favourite superhero and very quickly wishes he hadn't.

What happens

Danny Marin is eleven and the tallest player on his basketball team. When he isn't practising his slam dunk, he's drawing comics about Shrinkman, a superhero who can make himself as small as a bug. Nobody else he knows likes Shrinkman. Danny has seen the latest film three times.

A few strange things happen in one weekend. His friend Megan, who has to win at everything, is brewing a secret mixture for the science fair (she says her great-great-grandmother was a witch). Danny drinks a bottle of Shrinkman Cola from a hidden vending machine and it tastes horrible. Then, up in the projection booth where his dad works, he runs straight through the blinding beam of the projector.

The next day his basketball shorts fall down in the middle of a slam dunk, in front of everyone (it doesn't get more embarrassing than that). By Monday he can't reach his locker. By bedtime he's two feet tall, and his mum is trying very hard not to cry.

What's the scary part? Everything normal becomes dangerous. A friend's trainer is as big as a car. The family dog, Rocky, just wants to play, and Danny ends up swinging from his teeth like a chew toy. A car backs down the drive right over the top of him.

It's also very funny. Danny tells you everything in short, breathless sentences, and the chapters keep ending with him about to be squashed. You'll probably hear "just one more chapter" a lot.

If your reader is a bit of a worrier, this might be the one to read together. Danny's parents are frightened too, and the doctor hasn't got a clue what's wrong. But nothing gory happens, and the jokes keep coming. For a child who already likes a spooky story, the thrills are all in good fun.

There's a mystery running underneath it too. Was it the cola, the projector or Megan's mixture? You'll want to guess before Danny does.

What to read next

If they're after more Stine with a cinema at the heart of it, Zombie Town starts with two friends watching a horror film in an empty theatre that turns out to be very, very wrong.